Sunday, November 29, 2015

So, a guy walks into a bar along with a huge growling
grizzly, and the maître d hollers, “Oh my god! Table for two?”, and the guy
replies: “Thanks. I know this grizzly situation may be difficult—bear with me!”

Meanwhile, the insect had been dead for such a long time,
rigor mantis had set-in, but more than that, it’d gotten fashionable to be a dead
insect, it was de rigueur mantis.

I like to sit in the portion of the aircraft where ordinary
passengers receive self-help lectures, you know, motivational coach.

A fellow once sat next to me in motivational coach, a famous
baseball slugger traveling to attend a Jewish girl’s coming of age ceremony.

He would be, in fact, Casey at the Bat Mitzvah.

How to explain, but the animated character suffered a ritual
humiliation at the hands of an angry mob, in the new moving picture, Avatar and Feather.

The village crier scrambled into the town square in a state
of alarm: “The Scot is dead”, he shouted, “the Scot is dead.”

“Oh no!” someone called back, “how’d he die?

“He was kilt!”

In an unrelated development, an Irish pop-rock band had to
fill out so much American employment paperwork, they changed their name to W2.

“No more leads”, lamented the police detectives, as they
chowed-down some lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

I hope that listeners will pardon my loud “Oi! Oi!” at the beginning
of the first set, but I borrowed that riff from the Sleaford Mods song,
“Middlemen”, in order to quieten our garrulous audience at the Black Squirrel,
November 15, 2015. A fabulous renewal of the Lost Civilizations + Duo Exchange collaboration
ensued. For each gathering, Rod Smith and I provide the words (the “Duo
Exchange”) amidst the music, and we always label the most recent outing “the
best”, this one without hesitation. Connoisseurs of our collaboration may
recall that we script nothing in advance. The music as well as the poems find
their own order as the event flows forward.

Ted Zook (basscello) and Mike Sebastian (saxophones) form
the core of the Lost Civilizations Experimental Music Project, to which they invite
guest musicians. On this night, Leah Gage sat-in on drums, and Patrick
Whitehead joined on trumpet and flugelhorn, making us a six-member outfit. Rod
and I attempt to build a city—many voices and humors—every time Duo Exchange
sets out, and yet, no matter how much we may anticipate the evening’s
trajectory, the music inspires us not only for its abiding quality, but also
for the many surprising ways in which the musicians might push, embolden, and
shape our performance.

At times, we might’ve noted the manipulation of silence and
the occupation of part-spaces. At other times, we might’ve caught the discordant
caucusing in advance of one instrument prevailing. The Big Sound might’ve staggered
us, the declarations of agreement that fronted and trailed synthesis. Did Lost
Civilizations swing? Oh yeah, I think so. The musicians answered questions—with
brassy, reedy, thumping, sawing language—in need of responses, only we had no knowledge
of these questions before the performance began. We broke the surface of the
evening, vastly replenished.

Rod Smith (left) and the blogger as Duo Exchange

Lost Civilizations reminds us, aptly, that counter-culture hasn’t
yet suffered permanent misplacement, and that art, if untethered, represents our
best avenue for salvation. Two writers had to fit together, and four musicians
had to fit together, and six people had to fit together, in music and verse,
and we did, fit. If you attended the show, if you listened to one or both sets,
if you read this little review, thanks, and on behalf of Lost Civilizations and
Duo Exchange, in the spirit of Duke Ellington, we love you M-a-a-a-dly!

APPEARANCES WITH HETERODYNE IMPROVISATIONAL MUSIC PROJECT

I have appeared several times (as “Words”) with the Heterodyne improvisational music project, which is led by Maria Shesiuk and Ted Zook. Other performers have included Sarah Hughes, Leah Gage, Doug Kallmeyer, Bob Boilen, Sam Lohman, Amanda Huron, and Patrick Whitehead. Here are three free sample recordings, each about 30 minutes long, available on Soundcloud: